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#1 reccondos1 May 27, 2011 22:40:49

Daniel/Kieron/Pat/Steve if you've found this, stop reading. Going to do an investigation type adventure first up for my new Eberron group starting in Sharn. The idea is the party is approached by a grizzled ex-watchman forced into retirement. There's been a couple of bodies turn up naked down in Lower Dura, none of the Watch care, but the old timer feels in his bones that theres something more than just the usual murder going on here. The basic premise of it is that a member of the Aurum is trying to weakon House Ghallanda's hold on hopsitality in Sharn, especially the reputation of Ghallanda Hall as a safe-haven. He's hired one of the Ghallandra members working at the hall to murder a couple of people in their sleep, Dark Lanterns, Kings Citadel type guys, the usual spies and shadowy characters that seek refuge in there. The Aurum Concordian is attempting to frame it on a group of Phiarlan performers who regularly entertain at the Hall, and thus has instructed his inside man only to do a kill when the troupe is scheduled to be there, because a bit of friction between the houses will only serve to help his cause further.  Currently, the Hall is under the watch of a less than fully competent noble, because the regular Viceroy is away due to sickness/leave/death/whatever. As a result, rather than disposing of it more clearly, he simply drops it out a window/privy, where they fall into the Lower Dura, in a smallish body of water which industrial and residential waste gets tipped into to be more accurate. From there, a small clan of people/wererats/kobolds/whatever sewer dwelling guys seem appropriate grab the bodies, bring them into the sewers where they live to strip them and then dump them outside in a nearby garbage pile. Eventually(once the players are well on the trail of the case), the inside man slips up and kills someone, only to find out the Phiarlan troupe has cancelled their performance due to sickness and won't be coming. He attempts to get the body out through a service door and takes it back to his house, before contacting the Concordian who sends someone to his house to kill him.  I'm following the idea of three clues for every discovery you want your players to make and this is what I've got so far:  Discovery: Tracing the dumped bodies back to the sewers. Clue 1: Sewery smell to them, or chewed on by some form of animal that lives primarily in the sewer Clue 2: Nearby grate into the sewer has upon closer inspection a way to get in and out at will, either the whole thing swings open, or a loose bar that can be replaced etc.  Clue 3: At the tavern just next to where the bodies are dumped, there's a guy/kobold/whatever who is dressed in much higher class clothes than you would expect for someone down in this part of town, but they are ruined, dirty and waterlogged. If the players follow him from the tavern, he will lead them back into the sewers.  Intermission: Fight with sewer animals: Rats and beetles and ****, maybe a crocodile(Crocodile bite marks for the first clue!)! Skill Challenge: I'm running skill challenges in a more freeform way, you basically have a target number of successes and keep a track of how many failures you have and how many rounds you take up. Failures = doing the job poorly, Many rounds = taking a long time, each of these have different consequences depending on the particular skill challenge. In this case, they're going to be trying to get information from the sewer people, where they get the bodies from, if they had anything unusual on them etc. The Failure complication will be turning the sewer people hostile, the Time complication will be the sewer people hinting to their leader being on his way back here("Please leave now, if boss see us talking to you he be very mad, he on his way back now!"), and if they take too long, the leader comes back and picks a fight with the party. Discovery: The bodies are coming from Ghallanda Hall Clue 1: Some item that they either discover upon looting the room after combat or are shown by a now cooperative npc links the bodies to Ghallanda Hall with a streetwise check(Hey, I think this letter opener was swiped from the Hall!).  Clue 2: They follow the sewers to the body of water where the bodies are found by the sewer people and wait to see where they're coming from(up!) Clue 3: One of the sewer people is carrying a note on him asking to contact X person at Y tavern if he hears anything about Z victim who disappeared, its either looted from him, or he presents it to the party. Upon speaking to the guy they find out that one of the victims was last seen staying at Ghallanda Hall. Discovery: Finding the inside-man! The players will at some point try to sniff around Ghallanda Hall once they work out it's the original source of the bodies. They should discover the inside-man has been missing from work for several days, although the acting Viceroy does not confirm any knowledge of the murders as it would be a terrible look for the House. Clue 1: When they enter the Hall they may notice the staff sign-in sheet has been left on the bench, sneaking a glance they may notice that one name hasn't been to work at all for several days, but before then had a perfect record. Clue 2: Speaking to one of the service-people on their break they will discover that they are supposed to be on holiday now, but since didn't turn up for work, they're having to cover more shifts. They can discover 's address through this person as well. Clue 3: On the front doorsteps of the Hall is a man who the bouncers won't let in. He seems quite angry. On talking to him the party discovers that his partner is hiding in the Hall from him, and he doesn't believe them when they say he hasn't shown up for work. He's gone round to his house and there's no-one in there, he needs to talk to them and he won't leave until he has. He can also provide the players with the address.   Discovery: Who's pulling the strings? When they investigate(break in) to the inside persons house, they find that he has been killed with a throwing axe to the head, the axe still embedded in his skull. They also discover another body, the one the murderer tried to hide, burnt in the fireplace.  Clue 1: The throwing axe is of a unique design, with strange images engraved on it. If taken around to a blacksmith they are able to point the party to who forged it, who is then able to be persuaded to tell the party who it was made for, a bouncer at a nearby casino. Clue 2: Inside the murderers pockets are a number of chips from a local casino. Clue 3: A neighbour/local hobo is able to identify a man who was seen leaving the house late at night as a bouncer in a local casino.  That's what I've got so far, so I think I need a way to pull together the confrontation at the casino with the Concordian(A very junior player in the Aurum), which will leave the players hinting at the Aurum being more sinister than it's public face. And once the players are well on the trail I'll probably send a group of hired thugs at them to spice things up a bit.  Any comments/suggestions/criticisms would be more than welcome